AI’s growing thirst for water is becoming a public health risk |
“Bubble” is probably the word most associated with “AI” right now, though we are slowly understanding that it is not just an economic time bomb; it also carries significant public health risks. Beyond the release of pollutants, the massive need for clean water by AI data centres can reduce sanitation and exacerbate gastrointestinal illness in nearby communities, placing additional strain on local health infrastructure.
Generative AI is artificial intelligence that is able to generate new text, photos, code and more, and it has already infiltrated the lives of most people around the globe. ChatGPT alone is reported to receive around one billion queries in a single day, pointing to huge demand at the individual level.
This, however, is only the tip of the iceberg. Companies such as Google, Apple and Microsoft are now embedding AI into their key products. Applications that utilise search results are quickly moving to have AI as a new standard in their algorithms. Whether it is shopping on Amazon or booking a flight or a hotel, AI is now being used in searches, and that demands more energy. As an example, a single AI-powered Google search is estimated to use up to 30 times more energy than its standard version.
Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) are the current industry answer to this. They are chips that demand energy and produce heat. Though the thousands of small cores on GPUs enable parallel processing of massive, repetitive maths carried out by AI algorithms, a single chip can use up to 700 watts. This means that three chips alone can use roughly the same amount of energy as a home electric oven.
The large amount of heat produced by data centres is cooled by up to hundreds of thousands of gallons of fresh water each day. With thousands of heat-generating chips stacked next to and on top of one another, a simple fan does not do the trick. Instead, water is pumped or immersed between and around chips in order to avoid system overheating. A recent report from the United........